Life After Covid

 Day 13, Friday 10^th June

I savour the leisurely read, write, shower routine. My last. I almost feel like I’ve had a two week term holiday, except living through Covid is majorly not a holiday. And getting back into work routine still in its grip won’t be either. The big positive is all the large number of small jobs I’ve been able to get on top of. It’s sunny and I do a few more. The impending interview for the in school Col position dominates my thinking. I don’t want to go through it but I can’t withdraw. So I get to school, drop in on the English department who are eating cake then drop myself into the Board room with two members of senior leadership as the interview panel. It’s a good 40 minutes with some tough questions but I come out not knowing how my Covid brain has performed but understanding I’ve done my best. The rest is in the hands of fate.

I tie off a few loose ends, relaxing into post interview life, one of which is a visit to Pete to follow up my storage jobs. He’s thought through a longer garage shelf but I have to remind him that I want a copy of a bench he’s done already. Makes it a lot easier for him and I.

I get a little gardening done before I put my ball dress on. I was going to be hosting staff drinks which are not happening at all now. Shame. Bertie steps into his driver role and picks me up. The Foundry at UC is busy with Year 12’s, 13’s and staff in ball garb. A variety which shows much about the people wearing it. The high energy perks me up and I dance, eat, drink sugary mocktails and try not to talk too much, especially over the music. I want to stay longer but my energy drops when the music becomes less danceable. I’ve lasted longer than many and realise how integral parties and dancing are to  my mental health, how boring Covid has been, and how am I going to handle old age when I haven’t got the energy for partying anymore?

 Day 14, Saturday, 11^th June

I wake early and read. Would love to finish The Absolute Book soon. The sun is out again and I pick up my garden fork to fossick in the garden. I have a few shrubs and creepers to plant. My mind is focused on Judith’s 70^th birthday tonight…Indian takeaways here. It’s been twice postponed by Covid. I drive to Lincoln to pick up the jewellery box I left at Wanaka then drop in on Anjie who’s still under the Covid weather. She can’t go out into the cold without coughting, it went to her chest. I sift through the rest of the day outside in the wind tidying up the garden outside the dining room. The native creeper is creeping too far.

I set up for the party, Sharyn arrives but no sign of the others. In the end I check my messages, it’s tomorrow. My proclivity for not reading messages properly gets me sometimes. Bertie arrives, I pick a salad in the dark and we sit down to what we have. There’s always so much in the fridge, I carry residual guilt about the ease with which I can rustle up a number of dishes when so many have bare cupboards. My finances are cyclical, right now I've got two flatmates who are keeping me solvent and helping pay for finishing the house. In the end we watch Hotel Mumbai, the dark tale about the terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. Frightening. 

who’s still under the Covid weather. She can’t go out into the cold without coughting, it went to her chest. I sift through the rest of the day outside in the wind tidying up the garden outside the dining room. The native creeper is creeping too far.

I set up for the party, Sharyn arrives but no sign of the others. In the end I check my messages, it’s tomorrow. My proclivity for not reading messages properly gets me sometimes. Bertie arrives, I pick a salad in the dark and we sit down to what we have. There’s always so much in the fridge, I carry residual guilt about the ease with which I can rustle up a number of dishes when so many have bare cupboards. My finances are cyclical, right now I've got two flatmates who are keeping me solvent and helping pay for finishing the house. In the end we watch Hotel Mumbai, the dark tale about the terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. Frightening. 

Sunday is a home day collecting leaves for the compost and finally having Judith's birthday. Monday back at school, slowly, slowly. I follow up on the garage shelves,  Anjie comes to help place things on the wall. Practical approach, she takes pics of the objects against the wall so she can move them round on her computer. I get through the week with mainly full classes, except the seniors who come and go with illness and other courses. Life nearly back to normal.