Friday 25 February 2022

Teaching in Covid

I get to the end of the second school week and am ready to get out of town. It's Waitangi weekend but it's Covid so people are scaling down their parties. Tru and Pete always have one at Scargill Domain in Greta Valley. There's a small Convergence gathering at Akaroa. I opt for live music and throw tent and overnight gear in the car on Fri then drive. Mask free. It's wet and mizzly at Scargill so I pitch the tent while I still have the mojo. Then take my food indoors. There's only Tru, Pete, Margot, Steve and one other. We share food and Amana rocks up. We start talking about people no longer with us and the ladies door opens. Hmm, I've seen this before. Amana gets a shiver up her arm. I know they're with us. There've been so many people involved with this festival over the years. Some have passed on. Tonight there are 7.

I read in bed listening to the rain on the tent wondering about Covid raining on peoples' lives. And spreading at last through Aotearoa, though not down here yet. Not really. I wind down the beach road to Motunau. There's a muddy river outlet with lots of big birds and it takes a while to find the beach. I walk down a track in the still of misty rain then submerge in welcoming sea water. A beautiful spot tucked under cliffs. I gaze up and Te Rauparaha comes to mind, bloody butcher from Kapiti. I feel him and his warriors at this beach on their murderous rampage to subdue tribes they have no reason to hate. Utu.

When I return breakfast is served....classic English. I decide to stay another night. We're a party of 30, drinking, smoking, celebrating life. How wonderful it is. The music is live, varied and good. I stumble to bed when I'm ready. Next morning I leave before anyone is up. I swim at Leithfield where a dead body washed up last week. The waves crash close onshore; it's an endurance test to stay standing. I won't be coming back to this beach. I tidy up in a hurry, I've got guests. We potluck and catch up, discussing inventing a Waitangi dessert. Iconic...I'll give it some thought. NZ needs one.

I visit Suzannah to get some peaches. They're pouring off the trees and juicily amazing. Momentous event of the week, we move Kahu's dresser...thank God for Bertie who can tie things on trailers.

8 Feb 2022

Anti-vaccine mandate protest convoy arrives at Parliament

4:18 pm on 8 February 2022

Hundreds of protesters against Covid-19 vaccine mandates who have travelled to Parliament in a vehicle convoy will not be able to stay on the grounds overnight.

A large crowd of protesters have congregated on the lawn of Parliament since this morning.

Two convoys, made up of hundreds of cars, trucks, campervans and other vehicles, had been travelling from across the country since Sunday.

RNZ understands some protesters want to remain on the grounds until tomorrow.

However, it is against Parliament's rules to have structures or protests on the grounds overnight.

Vehicles blocked one street next to Parliament grounds, and some parked on footpaths near Parliament. Protesters diverted some local traffic that got stuck.

Molesworth Street was completely inaccessible and traffic was heavy on the north side of Lambton Quay.

Protesters carrying flags and signs saying their rights were being breached began to gather early today, and a crowd had grown hundreds by late morning.

Music was being played on loud speakers and gazebos and water tents set up as crowds settled onto Parliament grounds.

They are demanding an end to all mandates and Covid-19 restrictions, and what they see is media censorship of their views.

Locals were advised to avoid the area.

Thursday 17 February 2022

Re-establishing Routines

No way to describe first week back at school. Usually I feel rested and ready, this year I don't. It feels like we have come from our farewell do, had a long weekend, then arrived back in the school car park. And this year, due to Covid, we don't do the jumbo meet up in the staff room. It's a different vibe altogether and I'm not that happy to be back. But needs must. The beach is my anchor.

Kahu is ready and waiting to leave home but doesn't. I keep putting feelers out but I'm ok to see his not so cheery face at the end of the day. Life with me can't be that bad. We're both ready to move on but it's the same slow process as leaving Chris's. It's a wrench for him and he takes his time. Poor baby....not.

I meet my form class on the first day. They are so varied and quiet. First week routines kick in: up and out the door, looking for e-mails which tell me what to do, struggling in my head to imagine how I'm going to do everything I'm mandated to do, sore point, but taking things one day at a time. How else when systems are so complicated.

I spend the week in my room alternating between working with my class and trying to organise for my English classes. I know enough to wing it but know enough to know that won't be enough. Covid is here and our learning time could get hijacked at any point. I have paper resources downstairs, in the cupboard of my old classroom and in my present classroom. It's a massive organisational task as I have to make sure I have enough electronic resources too.

My peer support leaders are naively enthusiastic and dutiful. They take lots of sessions and one of them goes down the fun route, ditching the listed games for the throwing plastic bottles so they land upright challenge. The kids love it and he draws another class in. I try to learn names, finding I remember faces first, only they're from the cheek bones up.

At home, Anjie helps me find places to hang a few things, strawberries and cherry tomatoes continue to ripen. And somewhere else, Covid stretches its tentacles.

Monday 14 February 2022

Last Week of Freedom

It's a week of swimming and settling back into Christchurch...unpacking and tidying up the house and garden. Not to mention, processing apricots. Preserving, making apricot marmalade and chutney. I find one of Lionel's bank cards in a box of preserving rings, lost ages ago. It's slipped into a crevice and reminds me of summers past when I used to take Lionel on drives to pick apricots then preserve them. He would sit at the table and cut them in half with his curled, arthritic fingers. Having worked hard all his life he loved doing something useful. I also clean up the kitchen where nothing has moved for two weeks, except mold. Not sure what Kahu cooks when I'm not here, very little, as the few dishes I left are still here.

Amana and I go to Sparks in the Park. I wonder if it will the last big event for a while; Omicron's out of the bag. Still feels unreal and far away, but that's an illusion. It's not relevant but very relevant. Sunday afternoon in Cathderal Square at the Old Government Buildings bar and town is eerily quiet. Folks are staying home.

I go on peer support camp for the first time. I assume it will be cruisy but it turns out work intensive. The kids are excited and happy to be together and it's a good vibe. I find out I've got a Year 9 form class, an extension class who I will teach. I haven't had an extension class in over ten years, lack of confidence from the HOD but the new one is different. She's seen my teaching for two years and is much fairer. Extension kids are easy and fun to teach because they're smart. I have cruisy peer support leaders but I wish one of them had artistic talent....my tree banner could do with clearer lines. They dab paint on like kids at kindergarten. My challenge is the night line walk and I concentrate on not being scared. I've got a blindfold on anyway. I get to the end without freaking out.

Meanwhile Nic and I put an offer in on a house in Alex. There's paperwork and more paperwork. And I have to do it from camp. In the end we have competition from another buyer and put a low offer in knowing it won't be accepted. It's disappointing but we've made a start. We've been through the process, except for organising funds. Another exercise in paperwork which it feels like climbing a mountain. The government has restricted lending to make it harder to get a mortgage. But the horse has bolted in Aotearoa as there are not enough houses to go round and lots of people are returning from overseas because of Covid, cashed up. Prices have gone up about 7% in the last year which means we've gone backwards after selling the family home. It's dispiriting. Must be depressing for people trying to save a deposit and applying for higher and higher mortgages with interest rates going up and banks less willing to lend money. Nic and I are in the privileged position of owning houses but want somewhere to go in a place, Central Otago, which feels like home.

27th Januaary

Cases and vaccinations

There are 45 new community Covid-19 cases, and 90 Omicron cases in total to date, officials have reported.

The 45 new community cases (both Omicron and Delta) were in Auckland (22), Waikato (two), Bay of Plenty (three), Lakes (seven), Taranaki (one), Hawke’s Bay (eight), Nelson Marlborough (two).

Diary of a House