Second Week Back and Labour Weekend

Covid is disrupting life up north but it's business as usual in Otautahi. I listen to the stats and the case numbers are relatively stable although there's an upward trend. Meanwhile the vaccination push is on and I'm waiting, hoping I will get to 8 weeks  for or longer before my second jab.

With the end of the year upon us, school picks up pace. Corinne and I go to a performance at the Arts Centre and on Saturday I go to a double birthday party where I eat chocolate and flake out. It's Sue's neighbours and I end up having to lie down and wait it out. Not my best effort and takes me back to early partying over dose episodes. Not that I had too many of those, but the woozy out of it feeling blind sides my body and brain and I try to sleep it off. I wait for Bertie, who is supposed to be picking me up to go to another party, to arrive. He's lost his phone and I've Facebook messaged him with the address but he can't find me. He drives up and down Holly Rd then goes to borrow a phone from Anjie and Greig. We go home and I sit up and drink tea in an effort to come right. The body stone wears off enough for me to get back in the car and I arrive at Jacqui and Brent's a bit worse for wear. Lesson- check dose before consuming. Sunday is a slow day. Till Marie's BBQ where I eat a lot. Minimal drinks.

It's Labour weekend and I've got Monday to recover. Tuesday the curtains for the spare room arrive. They make the spare room feel like a room. They frame the window and provide privacy. On Wednesday my Year 13 girls from last year come to visit. Rosanna, Caitlin and Charlotte are so sweet, now nearly finished their first year at tertiary . These girls were so quiet in class but somehow we bonded. Them and kids like them are why I stay in teaching. They visited the house during the build and we prebook a revisit. I'm going to have to get a few more jobs done...unpacking and the toilet seat in the main bathroom. It's dragging. On Thursday I nearly tick off another job, tiles for the ensuite splash back. But there's a choice of gloss or matt so I take both back to double check. Matt it is. I drop in on Sharyn. Her family is helping out and I check the decor: super bright greens, sunglasses the order of the day. Sharyn loves it. Not sure I could live with it.

 

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.