Covid Catches Christchurch- Third Week Back

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.

Back to the Classroom

The last lights go up, but not without a fight. Rene has to push, pull, fiddle and swear to fit the kitchen island drops. I give him books and magazines to stand on cos he's stretching. Kahu meanwhile is studying or pretending to. Sharyn and Gil arrive to work on doorways so there's a bustle up and down the hall. The Arctic light in my room is heavy and we call on Kahu to use his long arms and biceps to get it up. If it falls down in the night it will crush my legs. But it looks stunning, the lattice talking to the branches of the William Morris Bird and Pomegranate. Rene straightens Kahu's light and we change the flickering bulbs and he straightens the entry light in my room. Looks like we've crossed this job off at last. Well, except for the deco fitting in Wellington at Lynley's which is going in my walk in. 

Saturday is Twig's 70's birthday party. In the context of Covid it feels a bit naughty but we're dancing and celebrating carefree while we're virus free. Who knows how long that will last? The scabies treatment seems to be working but that parasite has got a long tail and I'm spot dosing itches still. 

I drive out to Birdling's Flat on Sunday to visit Corinne who is cousin Jane and Geoff's neighbour. It's ages since I've been out of the city and away from buildings and tar seal. It's nice to stretch my limbs in the fresh air. Corinne's garden is wild and so is the beach. The waves crash close onshore and smooth stones flat. We eat al fresco vegetarian among Geoff's established and well cared natives and fragrant exotics. Fresh sea air, spring breezes and views on vaccination. Corinne distrusts the medical profession and is not going to be jabbed, the rest of us will.

School is in the back of my mind for the last few days of the hols until I step through the door on Monday morning. It's always a mind stretch but by mid morning I remember why I like this job. Relationships.  It's back to term routines, yoga, early morning meetings, cycling to and from work, and laundry on top. I'm thankful my scabies is nearly gone and hopeful that Kahu's nearly is. We stumble on with Covid rumbling on in the background up north.

 

The Small Parasite and the Raging Virus

Back to front pictures. Kahu peels off tape on the outside of the kitchen window. I've been meaning to do this for ages. I list the bottom end of the oak bed, another job. There's a bit of stuff I bought for the house lying around cluttering up the place. Not to mention the piles of laundry up and down the house...in the living room, the laundry, the garage, the hallway, the spare room, Kahu's room, my walk in, my room. It's everywhere and is swamping us. I dream of returning to normal. But that's impossible, we have mountains of scabies washing and the weather is cold and rainy. I'm doing most of the work and I'm over it. 

Meanwhile Covid continues to rumble on. My friend Jill tells me there have been over 18 million deaths world wide. Sounds like a lot. I check up and Wikipedia says 4.96 million. New Zealand, 28 deaths.

8th October 

• There are 44 community cases of COVID-19. 41 are in Auckland, and 3 are in Waikato.
• There are 3 cases in managed isolation.
• Today's cases are higher than recent days. This is not unexpected because there have been a number of contacts of new cases and we can expect to get fluctuations from day to day.

9th October

There are 34 new community cases today, of which 23 have already been linked to the outbreak (of which 11 are household contacts) and 11 are still being investigated to determine how they are linked. 

All the new Waikato cases are linked to the initial Hamilton East case.

10th October

There are 60 new community cases today, 56 in Auckland; 3 in Waikato and 1 in the Bay of Plenty.

The three new Waikato cases are linked to the initial Hamilton East case.

And there's a Vaxxathon....this article from The Guardian, UK

Covid ‘vaxathon’: over 2.5% of New Zealanders get jabbed in one day

Celebrities encourage turnout as response surpasses Jacinda Ardern’s call to administer 100,000 shots

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

The Thompson family arrive en masse to get vaccinated in Auckland. Photograph: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Associated Press in Wellington

Sat 16 Oct 2021 15.15 BST

New Zealand’s “Super Saturday” of Covid vaccinations has proved a hit, with more than 2.5% of the population responding to the call to get jabbed on a single day.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, set an ambitious goal of administering 100,000 shots on the day, aiming to push vaccination rates towards her 90% goal.

But New Zealanders turned out in even greater numbers. As of 7pm local time (0700 BST), health workers had administered 127,342 Pfizer doses on Saturday, jabbing at a higher per capita rate than any day of the rollouts in Australia, the UK, US or Canada.

Lining up to be vaccinated outside Manurewa Marae, a Maori meeting house, in South Auckland on Saturday.Credit...Natasha Frost/The New York Times

11 October- 35 new cases and an announcement that teachers will have to be vaccinated by 1st January next year. That's gonna annoy anti-vaxxers.

12 October -43 new cases of Covid. Police are still turning vehicles away from Covid-19 border checkpoints despite being weeks into alert level 3 boundary settings in Auckland.

There were 22,460 vehicles processed at the checkpoints yesterday with 196 of those vehicles being turned around, police said.

A total of 50 out of 4699 vehicles were turned away at the northern checkpoints yesterday, while 146 vehicles out of 17,761 were turned around at the southern checkpoints.

October 13th- 

• 55 community cases of COVID-19 — 53 are in Auckland, 2 are in Waikato
• No cases in managed isolation
• More than 2 million second doses of vaccine administered to date
• 25,799 tests were taken yesterday

October 14th- 

• 71 community cases of COVID-19 — all are in Auckland
• 1 case in managed isolation
• 87% of Aucklanders have 1 vaccine dose
• 28,646 tests were taken yesterday.

• So far two deaths from Covid in this outbreak. The first on September 4th, a woman in her 70's, and a younger man from an anti-vacc church. 

Life goes on. Maxine drives up to pick up a wagon wheel to make a light for a bar in Clyde. I drive around town picking up Marketplace purchases, I've really got to stop this, but I get a really good buy of Halswell Quarry stone which I need for the path I'm trying to organise down the living room side of the house. It's from the back of Chch Boys' High, a common finishing material back in the day. Now I need to find the money to get someone to make the path. That's the trouble with finishing a house, there are lots more costs. I borrow the school trailer and the vendor helps me load. At the other end Kahu does his usual spit the dummy before he settles down to help.

The garden goes gang busters with the constant rain and flowers pop up everywhere. The newly planted area where the garage was is thriving. I keep putting cuttings and odd roots and bulbs in spaces. The potatoes push their heads above ground. I visit Daryl who grows seedlings to give away as a hobby and pick up an armful of plants. An important part of planting is figuring out where everything will grow. 

It's 150 years since Ernest Rutherford's birth and I go to a lecture on his connection with Russia. He was an amazing mentor and apart from splitting the atom did lots of chemistry work. 

Luke arrives from Ranfurly with the tui. She looks so life like, especially the eyes and feet, and the iridescence pops blue. She'll be kaitiaki of the entrance. As he leaves, Luke tells me he has a huia which was returned. Hmmm. 

My last job for the week, taking the frame into Commercial Mirror and Glass to cut and fit a mirror. Amazing what you can do you had no idea of. Custom make the perfect mirror.

   My garden hose in this carcinogenic contraption

     Where the heck did all this laundry come from?

Central Otago Maxine and the wagon wheel

Blue haired Hana and the mirror frame