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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hi, I'm Elle. I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm the mother of two young adults, the wife of an entrepreneurial gamer and the Queen of Unfinished Projects. This blog will contain poems, short stories, possibly photos and book reviews if you're lucky, and my thoughts on a variety of topics. Hope you enjoy it. |
| 647 cases in New Zealand so far. Still just the one death. Dad walked the golf course again. I got a courier delivery, which was a box of a dozen wines addressed to my boss. We had all the mail and courier deliveries re-routed to my house during lockdown and apparently the wine was originally sent to the office. I rang my boss and said 'Were you expecting some wine? It just arrived at my house. Should I send it to you?' He said he'd ordered it when he was in Queenstown the week before lockdown (he'd been down there on holiday) and not to worry about redirecting it. So I'm storing his wine for the duration of the lockdown. It'll be good wine too. I shall try very hard to resist sampling it for him!  The kids were getting cabin fever yesterday, so I sent them to dairy to buy milk and lemonade. They took the dog for a walk, and took over an hour to do what was probably a 15 minute walk. Never mind, they were out of the house and getting some exercise. I'd told them they could buy one treat for everyone (might as well enjoy the luxuries if you're going into the shop anyway!) so they brought back ice creams for Steve and I. Yum! Caitie had an ice block I think, and Jayden had an energy drink. Whatever makes you happy, I guess. Caitie had asked me the other day about interviewing her and Jayden. I realised I hadn't done it since 2016. I stopped because Jayden started getting annoyed at it, but now I realised I'd missed all of Caitie's high school years, which was bad in retrospect. So I sat them both down and interviewed them. Even Jayden enjoyed it, so there you go. Maybe he just needed a break from them. They still had cabin fever, and ended up filling my leftover birthday balloons with water and throwing them at each other as water bombs. I turned the camera on my phone to slow motion mode and took some videos of them. Then they got more excited about making an epic slow mo video than actually throwing balloons at each other. Then Steve got involved and he filled up balloons with huge amounts of water and hurled them at the kids, and we did get some great slow mo videos out of it. Was good fun. I've posted the videos on  Facebook if we're friends on there.It was family games night, but by the time we finished the water balloons, it was about 8pm and it was Jayden's night to cook. I think we ate the burgers he made at about 9:30pm. We did end up having two games of Relative Insanity, but I was a bit tired, and I think it wasn't as fun as it could have been if I'd been more alert. Was still good family time though. |
| I gave up interviewing my kids as Jayden was getting annoyed by it, but I think Caitie was inspired by my sister interviewing her kids, so she asked me to do another interview. As I explained in "Invalid Entry"  , I interviewed my kids with the same questions pretty much every year since just before Jayden started school. However, the last time I did it was 2016, before Caitie started high school.This is the 2020 version. For the record, Jayden is 18 and Caitlin is 14. Caitie Jayden What do you think about Dad? I love him, but he's a bit aggressive recently. Just a tad. Shall I answer in a funny way or an honest way? Um, I think we get along well when we both make the effort to get along well. I think we have two very different personalities, but I think the ways that we're similar causes us to clash and knock heads with each other. But when we make the effort we get along well. He's a good person. What do you think about Mum? I love her and I love the fact that you're always there for me in times that I need you to be. And you're understanding. Awful. I can't believe I was born into this family with you. Terrible. Wow, you really wrote that down, huh? Are you able to erase that? No, don't keep writing! No! Stop it! Oh, Jesus! No, don't write that down! I think I get along best with you out of everyone in the family. You're just as much an introvert as me and you know my boundaries so you know when to leave me alone. What do you think about Jayden/Caitie? He's gotten better recently. We've been getting along more, which is nice. I feel like he's become a little bit less...*makes angry noise* But we do have our off times. But we're getting along more than we used to. Horrific! Can't believe I was born into this family with her! What, no, don't write that down! I think me and her have gotten along better than we have in a while. Which is partly because I'm such a wonderful person and she has no choice but to get along with me. I think that when Caitie decides she wants to get along with me, we get along quite well. However, when she decides not to get along with me, we don't get along quite well. What do you think about Poppa? Same old, same old. I haven't seen him in a while. But he's still good. He's nice. I like Poppa. He's fun to be around. Um... Wow, you really wrote down um! I think that I really like Poppa, but I wish he wasn't so... What's the word? I think martyr is the wrong word, but he wants to do everything himself, even when it's not the best for him to do it himself. Like, Poppa, get out of the kitchen. Or Poppa, I can do the lawns, you're like 90. I can do it. I just wish he didn't have to do everything himself. What do you think about Nana? Same goes. I see her less often, so it's hard to say what I think about her now because I haven't seen her in so long. I do hope she's okay though. Ummmmm.... Please don't put in that really long um, for gods sake, Mum. Wow. Nana is like Dad on steroids. Not physically, she's just as old and frail as Poppa. But I get along with Nana really well, but she has the same issues that Dad has, where we butt heads together unless I make more of an effort. But I'm going to be making more of an effort. Future tense. What do you think about school? Oof. It's annoying to do at home, but when I'm not at home I really like it because I like being around friends. What do you think about your teacher(s)? Ah, apart from my form teacher they're all great. But my form teacher can...yeah, no. He's annoying. Yeah, I like all my teachers, just not my form teacher. I think. What do you think about Grandma? I like Grandma, I like being around her. She's always bubbly and it's really nice. Um... Grandma's really sweet, I just don't see much of her. I don't know what she's like recently. What do you think about Grandad? He's fun to be around. He has very good gardening skills. He wasn't very sociable last time we were here, he was just gardening all the time. He's another poor soul attacked by my 'I haven't seen you in a long time.' In a decent way, because we haven't spoken much. Same thing. I haven't seen him in ages. I suppose it's both my fault and his, but we're very distant. Do you know what sex is? Yes. Very much so. If I didn't, I would be very surprised. Yes. Oh dear lord. Is that going to be one of my questions when I'm forty and have kids? Do you know what sex is, Jayden? Do you know what doing the hanky panky is? What smooshing booties is? What do you think Dad thinks about Mum? I think that he loves you because he always cheers up a lot when he's around you. You make him smile in a way that no one else can, and I think he likes having you around. Hmm... I know he loves you dearly. Um... You fucking wrote down um! I mean, you guys have been together nearly twenty years now? Longer? You've got to love someone to be together that long. I mean, whoever leaves has to take the kids, so I'm sure that's it. No one wants to take Caitie. Yeah, no, I stand by that. I think he loves you very much. I think he wishes you would do more housework, but I think that's the only negative thing he'd think about you. What you think Mum thinks about Dad? I think that sometimes Dad annoys you with his kind of pestering, but I think it's not that big of an issue to you and that you can cope with it to a sense that it doesn't make you want to leave the house for a moment. I dunno. That's it. I think you love him very much. Um... Something tells me you don't like how much he games, that you don't understand that. But you two get along really well. I can't think of anything that would annoy you other than you not doing housework and him gaming too much. What do you think Mum and Dad think about Jayden/Caitie? Okay. Right. So up until very recently I think he was annoying you a lot and you were getting pissed off at him very easily, but now, like during the quarantine, you guys have been getting along with him much better because he's been helping out and I think you guys appreciate that. And I think generally we've gotten along better as a family. Same thing I think about Caitie! Ha ha! She's loud. She's obnoxious. She's too obsessed with anime. I think you love Caitie but I think she probably drives you mental half the time. I know that because as much as I try not to let her drive me mental, she drives me mental. She's literally dancing to Tik Tok now. What do you think Mummy and Daddy think about you? Um... I know I annoy you sometimes, because I can get very emotional and hormonal and I don't exactly know how to control that yet. But I also think that, um, you guys, even though you don't enjoy the same things as me, you're able to recognise that they're something that I enjoy, and even though it pisses me off when you ask me to turn my stuff off, you don't mind me doing said stuff in my room. I phrased that really weirdly. What's your favourite thing to do at school? I like making memes with my friends, that's always fun. And having to, like, I don't know. Ah, I'm very awkward aren't I? I like hanging out with friends, but I also like the kind of stuff we're doing in class at the moment, especially for, like, Japanese and English. Those are fun subjects at the moment. And I like maths. My maths teacher likes me. It's kind of like an equal trade, I like her and she's likes me back. Honestly, it's probably like the hanging out with the friends bit, but school-wise it's probably Japanese. Who is your favourite person in the whole world? I can't pick! That's not fair! I dunno. I don't know! I treat everyone as equals. You're all my favourite people! Except my form teacher. And people I don't like. All the people I like are treated as equals! Do the cats count? People suck, dude. The cats are amazing. If the cats are an option, I'm taking the cats. Are the cats an option? What's your favourite thing to do on the weekend? I like being able to spend time with you and Dad, even though sometimes you guys go out. But I also like to do my drawing and my cos playing. That's always fun. I think my favourite thing would just be being able to spend time with my family without everyone all being stressed out. Like, when we have family night, it's nice to see Jayden and Dad just having fun instead of being stressed out about everything that's going on around them. Ooh, that's a good question. I would say either reading or writing. Or coming up with strategies for games, that's always fun. Trying to use my creative mind. What is the one thing you wish you could have got for Christmas or your birthday? Ooh, honestly, probably a stylus of some kind. You know, I don't really know. I'm really not a fussy person. Like, whenever people ask me something like that, I'm like "I don't know". If I gave you $100 what would you buy? Probably an Apple pencil as my top priority, then if I had money left over, something for everyone. Oh Jesus, um... Oh, I have no idea. Um... If you put me on the spot, maybe pen, paper, a book? Maybe a League of Legends card. Do you think that would use more than $100 or do you think you would still have money left? I think it would use a bit more. I dunno how much Apple pencils are worth. I mean, I'd spend as much as I can really. If I can't afford more, I won't. And if I can't afford an Apple pencil, then I'd probably just buy you guys something, in which case I'd have money left over. Apple pencils are expensive! Oh, I'd still have money left, easily. Do you think Mum and Dad have a lot of money? Um... I think they have a liveable amount. Not like a lot which they can spend on anything they want. We're not rich per se, but I think we have enough that we can live a healthy life and you can still buy some treats. I don't think we're terribly rich or terribly poor. I think we have an average amount of money. No. We're dirt poor, please donate. Help a starving child. We're not rich, but we're not dirt poor. We're completely average. Do you know anyone who has a lot of money? Um... Well I wouldn't know if I knew anyone with a lot of money, because I don't ask people about their money, but my guess would be Emily, because she keeps going to places like Gordon Harris. Yeah, my best bet of a person who has a lot of money would be Emily. She always has a lot of food and she's always going to Gordon Harris. Bill Gates. Bill Gates has a lot of money. What countries can you name? Why do you do this to me? Countries? Okay, England. New Zealand, Australia, the USA. Is that one country or a bunch of countries? I think the USA is one country. I think Canada's a different country. India. China, Japan, Korea. Ah... The UK? Is that a different country? I think it is. Like, Ireland and Scotland, that's a different country, eh? I think Virginia's another country. Yeah, I think that's about it. I can't think of any more. New Zealand, Australia, America, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Africa, Russia, Poland, Germany, Austria, um, is Hungary a country? Pretty sure it is, yeah. Japan. China. Taiwan. Korea. Italy. Hmm... Papua New Guinea. Britain. What job would you like to have when you're an adult? Ah, the thing I have been debating. Either a professional artist as that's a thing I seem to have taken a lot of interest in lately or I'll stick with my original, which is a baker. Or a chef. I think chef has been my recent one. Anything that makes a lot of money and doesn't stress me out. Esports would be good, I could do esports. Do you know what Daddy does for a job? He's a health and safety consultant for the business [Business name] that he runs himself with the help of Nana. He's a health and safety consultant for his company [Business name] which was founded by [Name]. He has several large clients, including airports. Do you know what Mummy does for a job? You're an insurance person. For [Business name]. Financial insurance isn't it? I think so. Insurance. I'm fairly sure you work for [Business name] but I'm not sure what you do. We don't really talk about it. Note, I'm an Admin Manager for a forensic accounting company. Do you know anyone who does an interesting job? Um... I think a teacher's an interesting job, so I suppose I do. That'd be kinda fun. But dealing with little shits all day wouldn't be fun. Only one, but he's a Youtuber I think it's quite interesting that he's able to make a living off of it. He's not a big channel. Like, I think he's got 100,000 subscribers and he averages 4,000 views per video. Who makes the most money? I dunno. You guys don't like telling me how you make. So my best guess... It depends on whether Dad gets jobs or not. You never specified it was in the family, so I'm going to say the guy who runs Amazon. He has enough money that if you turned all his money into dollar bills, it'd be enough to go to the moon and back, seven times. He overtook Bill Gates as the richest man alive. Imagine having that much money. Ridiculous. What's the worst thing Mummy could ask you to do? I think it would be either having to, like, having to stop interacting with, like, the friends I've made, because I'm happy to be around them. Or to live on my own, currently. Genocide a race. Um, spend 24 hours with my sister. Honestly, that's worse than genociding a race. That's unfathomably evil of you to request that. What's the best thing Mummy could do with you? Honestly? With you? I think it'd be just like spending time together for a day. Or if we had the money, just go on a shopping spree and buy all the things we wanted. But we don't have the money, so just spending the day with you. I don't know to be honest. It'd have to be something, like, personal. Not just like win the lotto and go to Hawaii. Although if you could win the lotto and go to Hawaii, that'd be awesome. Spend quality time playing games! I mean, computer games, not board games. I could teach you how to play League of Legends or something. Do you like answering questions for Mummy? Yeah, I think it's fun. It's usually pretty funny, so yeah. |
| Quiet day yesterday. Caitie made dinner, but neither she nor I liked it. I ended up having tinned creamed rice for dinner, and went to bed about 8pm or so. I think I was asleep by about 9ish. Steve said he came to bed about 11pm and then read until midnight. My sister in the UK interviewed her kids. Their answers are so cute. H is six and E is four. 1. If you won a million pounds, what would you buy? H: A phone E: A big Frozen bouncy castle 2. How long does it take to get to America? H: 156,000 minutes E: 45 minutes 3. What does mummy always say to you? H: Yes? E: I'm cute 4. What job would you like to do when you're big? H: A computer programmer E: A doctor 5. What is the capital of England? H: E E: E 6. Where do babies come from? H: Tummies E: Any country, with their Mummies 7. At what age do you become an adult? H: 56 E: 57 8. If you could change one rule your family has, what would it be? H: No turning lights off E: I would be in charge of this family 9. If you could be a superhero, what superpower would you have? H: Robot power E: I would have a lot more power than Harry 10. What would you do to save the planet? H: I'd be stretchy E: I'd grab it and make it happy again 11. If you could eat one thing all the time, what would it be? H: Wiggly worms (Fizzy strawberry laces) E: Chocolate mouse 12. How much does it cost to buy a house? H: Millions E: £100 13. Why do you think we should be nice to other people? H: Cos punching isn't nice E: So children don't get sent to their bedroom 14. What does love mean? H: It means you love someone E: When your heart loves someone 15. What are you scared of? H: Monsters E: Bees 16. What is so important? H: Exercise E: Tidying I love their answer to the 'capital of England' and also H's answer to what my sister always says. I can just hear her saying "Yes?" every time one of the kids says "Mummy!" |
| 1. Take a look at your calendar and use the schedule for inspiration in writing. Okay, so here's how it looks. Mondays - team meeting with my boss and colleagues Tuesdays - games night with the family Wednesdays - free Thursdays - games night with the family Fridays - virtual Friday afternoon drinks with my boss and colleagues Saturdays - family movie night Sundays - free I was supposed to go to Kawau Island with my mum and my sister on Saturday for a photography expedition, but that's obviously been cancelled. So has the Offspring concert we were going to go to in April. But I think I'm more frustrated by my inability to make it to the osteo. I only had one appointment before the lockdown and my shoulder is killing me. He said he thought it was bursitis. Ugh. Trying to manage with anti-inflammatories and just resting it as much as I can. 2. Write a poem about what you do when you are alone – do you feel lonely or do you enjoy your own company? Self flagellation with a silken tie, a token gesture of appeasement because I'm not supposed to enjoy solitude. 3. Write about how you feel when you’re either at a high or low energy level for the day. Music beats banging in my head, lyrics...scattered, conversations... distorted. Eyelids drifting closed, jolted open. Heavy limbs lugged upstairs, sweet silence, surrender, sleep. 4. Take a few minutes to do some deep breathing relaxation techniques. Once your mind is clear, just write the first few things that you think of. These lollies are starting to make me feel sick. I think I'm getting a migraine. The music is way too loud. Is it time for dinner yet? So many things to do on Writing.com. Never going to get them all done. 5. Write a cinquain poem, which consists of 5 lines that do not rhyme. True forms in poetry are still a mystery. Syllables I get, but meter? I'm lost. 6. Write a poem that has every letter of the alphabet in it. Last generation that remembers the click of the typewriter keys as we clacked out the story of the quick brown fox jumping over that endlessly lazy dog. And the ching as we drop a line and have to figure out how to correct a mistake in those days before backspacing. 7. Write something inspired by a comedian. It's interesting how we've naturally turned to comedy to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety caused by the current global situation. Even those of us who are taking the situation seriously are amused by some of the memes making their way through social media. And when it came time for family movie night on Saturday, we naturally gravitated to comedies. It's a type of self-medication I guess, an understanding that we need a break from all the negativity and that laughter is healing. We watched two Adam Sandler movies on Saturday night, and while I think some of his stuff is stupid, there are a couple more of his that I'd be happy to watch. 8. Write about someone who is unfaithful. One thing I've never understood is when people say 'It was an accident' or 'I didn't mean for it to happen.' Seriously, what the fuck, people? You didn't trip and fall into each other's private parts. You didn't sleepwalk into each other's bedrooms. Unfortunately, this is a topic that riles me up, and I have a tendency to be quite judgey about it. Generally speaking I try not to judge people, especially when I haven't been in their situation (and you've never been in their exact situation!) but cheating isn't a victimless crime and it just winds me up something chronic. 9. Write about someone who has shown you love. I've really appreciated the way Jayden has stepped up during lockdown and helped out with chores. It's been an ongoing battle to try and get him to contribute to the running of the household. When he was working, he actually chose to pay market rates for board ($220 per week) instead of the nominal amount we'd originally put in place ($50 per week) rather than help out with chores. But of course, he has no income now, so he can't pay board at all. It's been the biggest source of arguments in this house for a long time. And now we're all trapped inside together with no escape....and he's started helping with chores and making dinners and... It's bewildering, but so nice. So appreciated, and I've made sure to tell him so. 10. Write about something peaceful and serene. It's actually crazy how quiet and peaceful it is right now. We went for a walk on Sunday and we could literally walk down the middle of the road because there's no traffic. And the press have shared photos of the Auckland motorway, which is just empty. It's so weird to see it so empty! It's never empty! I've got a playlist going at the moment, but even over that, I can hear birds chirping and kids playing at the neighbour's house. It's so nice. No traffic noise, nothing like that. And thankfully, no shouting or arguments! 11. Go cloud watching for the day and write about what you imagine in the clouds. I actually love trying to spot pictures in the clouds. My favourite thing to spot is dragons, but for whatever reason, the thing I seem to see most is dogs. I wonder why that is? You'd think it'd be sheep! It's pretty rare that I'm cloud watching though. When I used to drive to and from work, I used to see the sunset quite often and I loved watching the clouds, especially as I went over the Upper Harbour Bridge, because they'd reflect on the water. But now I rarely look at them. It's such a fun, peaceful activity to do though.12. Write a poem or story using the words should, would, and could. Post-lockdown, life has become a series of should haves, would haves and could haves, and yet, I continue to stew in my own procrastination. 13. Write directions on how to do something. I know that Ancestry has made a lot of their records free during this time, which is awesome. So here are my instructions for how to start researching your family history.  Start with yourself. Add all the family members and their info, as best you can without looking anything up or asking anyone. Interview family members. Lockdown is a great time to be interviewing people, actually. I have a list of questions if you need them: "Family history questions" Then use a database by Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org or whatever to fill in the blanks. Don't forget to always note the source of your information. You'll be frustrated by doing it at the beginning, but you'll be pleased you did at the end. If you use a program like Ancestry.com to store your family tree, it's easy to add resources and track what info came from where.14. Write about Valentine's Day. Any Valentine's Day We don't celebrate Valentine's Day. My husband hates it and thinks it's just a way for businesses to make money. He thinks you should show your love at random times, not on one specific day each year. And I'm okay with that. But he has made me laugh a few times. Sometimes he comes across radio station crews or whatever who are giving away things. So one year I got a free rose, another time I think I got a small thing of perfume, and maybe one time some chocolates? But yeah, we always go out for dinner for our wedding anniversary, and he often sends me flowers at work on my birthday. And sometimes (not so much recently, but more in the early years) he will buy me flowers or chocolates for no reason at all, just because he loves me.  15. Write a poem or essay that raises awareness for a cause you support. A failure of comprehension as to how their bedroom activities affect your life. From where does the passion, the aggression come? 16. What is something has impacted you positively in your life? Changing jobs affected me positively, in a major way. I was soooo stressed at my last job, and it was affecting everything about my life. I dreaded going to work. I had trouble sleeping. I was getting sore shoulders from being tense all the time. I was short-tempered and snappy. And then I got my current job. I'm like a different person. I'm laughing again, I'm smiling, I'm relaxed and I'm definitely more patient. It's huge. Being happy at work makes such a huge difference to your life. 17. Imagine you can fast forward and rewind your life with a remote control. Eek, I'm not sure I want that power! Yeah, it'd be awesome to zoom backwards and just have a cuddle with my babies when they were little. They were so cute and sweet then. But I don't want to return to those days permanently. No way! I like having the independence that comes with my children being independent. Would I want to fast forward to the end of lockdown? Probably not. I'm actually quite enjoying being at home. Would I want to fast forward to when my kids have moved out of home? Ooh, so tempting. So tempting! See, that would be hard to resist. Maybe I do want that power after all.  18. Write about a time when you saw hope when it seemed like a hopeless situation. I've always been a 'light at the end of the tunnel' kind of person. I'm optimistic. Sometimes unrealistically so. But I think the most hopeless I've ever felt about a situation was our debt. It seemed like an endless cycle and no matter what we did, it seemed like we'd never be out of debt. Not our mortgage, but short-term debt. The best 'light at the end of the tunnel' I got in that regard was when I was working at my last job. They were financial advisers. I know, the irony. Anyway, we had a client who had huge amounts of short term debt and was going more into debt every pay, and one of the advisers did a financial plan for her, and had her debt-free in three years. I was gobsmacked. What a turnaround! And my situation wasn't as dire as the client's, so surely there was hope for me! 19. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Use this saying as inspiration to write. This makes me think of all the conspiracy theories that go around. Right now there's a whole bunch going around about Covid19. People saying that the Chinese created the virus as a biological weapon except it was accidentally released. People saying that the Americans created it as a biological weapon and deliberately released it in China. Ugh. I have no time for conspiracy theories. And I'm sure that some of them are just smoke without a single shred of fire.  20. Write about repeating patterns that occur in life. I think we've seen a lot of that in the statistics that have been floating around since this virus emerged. People have been comparing the current pandemic to previous pandemics. I found it quite fascinating actually. This is the one I found most interesting (although obviously it needs updating as Covid19 spreads):  21. Write about a wish you have and if you have more than one share them. Oh, I have wishes. I wish this virus wouldn't kill anyone else. I wish those who are really struggling with this lockdown would be able to have some relief from the stress and anxiety this is causing. I wish I had more lemonade in the house because I'm down to my last bottle. I wish I could order things online during the lockdown (even though I understand why I can't). I wish housework would do itself. 22. Write about a promise you want to make to yourself and keep and if you have more than one share them all. I promise that I will re-organise the storage cupboard before the lockdown ends. I promise that I will make some significant progress on my boss's family history/genealogy before the lockdown ends. I promise that as soon as the post offices reopen after lockdown, I will send off the remaining circle journals I'm working on for "The Snail Mail Group" and they'll be FINISHED by then.23. Write a poem that is about a brick wall – whether literal or figurative. Communicating with some people is like banging your head on a brick wall. Except people expect you to persist. 24. Write about a time when you had to make a difficult choice. Okay, here's one. Except it wasn't me. But when I was in labour with Jayden, we were having trouble with the baby (he was 9lb 9oz and frankly wasn't going anywhere) and when they went to do the emergency cesarean, they asked Steve 'if we can only save one, which one do you want us to save?' Like holy fuck, that's a hard question for anyone! Steve told them to save me, figuring we could have more children if we wanted. Of course, at the time the baby was kinda theoretical. We hadn't met Jayden yet. And of course, we were young. I was 21 and Steve was 23. 25. Create a poem that highlights the beauty in being flawed. Perfection breeds resentment and discontent. You're not perfect. Just perfect for me. 26. Write about a health topic that interests you. I guess at the moment, that's Covid19, huh? My husband is a health and safety consultant, so this is right up his alley. Before we went into lockdown, he was working with a number of businesses, trying to put in place plans for situations just like this. Who knew we needed one? Well, now we all know we need one! I was working on one for the business I work for when the lockdown was announced, and it was kinda redundant at that point. But yeah, this is something that Steve and his colleagues do - they create plans for worse-case scenarios so that if the worst happens, the business knows what to do and they cope. It's weird living through it though. 27. Write about living in the present moment. I'm not good at living in the present, actually. I'm kinda obsessed with the past and the future. I love family history and then I obsess over the 'family history' that I'm leaving for future generations. It's why I blog, actually. I want to leave a record of my life and my children's lives, for future generations to read. If I didn't have kids or I knew for a fact that my kids would never have kids, I would really struggle with that. A lot of what I do is researching the past or recording the present for future generations. It's why I'm trying to microblog about the lockdown.  28. Write about having to wait in line. I think we're going to have to go to the supermarket today or tomorrow. So far there haven't been any real queues to speak of, but others keep telling me there are. They're the weirdest queues ever though, because everyone is standing 2m apart. Normally people queue right behind each other, but not during this pandemic. I get it, I really do, but it's still weird. The queues kinda look like someone is setting up dominoes to topple, like if you knock one person over, they'll all go over one after the other. 29. Write your personal credo list of things you believe in. Hmmm... Okay, just off the top of my head. I believe that God does not exist, neither does heaven or hell. I believe that so long as the people involved are consenting adults, it doesn't matter what gender or sexuality they are, nor what kinks or whatever they like to indulge in. What other adults do in their bedroom is up to them and provided no one is being harmed, who gives a fuck? I believe milk chocolate is the best kind of chocolate. I believe abortions should be legal and free and practiced in a safe, sterile environment. I believe people deserve second chances. I believe wholemeal pasta is disgusting and shouldn't even deserve to be called pasta. I believe marriage is all about trust and communication.30. Write about visiting the bank. Right now the actual bank branches are closed, but I've been visiting my bank's website every day for the last couple of days, waiting for their update on home loans during the lockdown. I was hoping they'd offer interest-free mortgage holidays for people during the lockdown. But they're not. They're offering repayment holidays, which means you can have a break from making payments BUT YOU'LL STILL BE CHARGED INTEREST. In fact, we did a three month mortgage holiday once, during the 2009 economic crisis, and it set us back THREE YEARS. It's insane. And here you've got these huge banks which make a fuckton of profit, and they're now profiting off people's financial distress during the lockdown. It's disgusting. They've lowered floating rates by about a percent (or less) but that's about it. They should be putting all interest on hold for the duration and all repayments. Just freeze the mortgages for the duration and start up again afterwards. So many people have reduced income at this stage. It really fucks me off. It's not like they can't afford to do it.  |
514 cases in New Zealand, and our first death.  A lady in her 70s from Greymouth. So sad. My sister in the UK said she had a 20 minute queue to get into her supermarket but she could buy most things, just not her normal brands. Dad went for another walk around the golf course. I wrote some letters (one to heyxie  , one to Osirantinous  and one to Humming Bird  ) and Steve, Caitie and I went for a walk to the nearest post box to drop them off. Will be interesting to see how long they take to arrive. Since we were near the supermarket, I ducked in and bought some milk. Had to sanitise my hands on entry and stay two metres from everyone, but otherwise was pretty normal. Hardly anyone in there. While we were walking, we spotted bears in people's windows. Quite fun to spot them! I told the kids they'd have to put some in our windows for kids walking up the walkway, so Jayden has done that in his window.Had a video call with Mum and my sisters. All the grandkids joined in a little. Caitie sang Into The Unknown from Frozen 2 to my little niece in the UK, and she sang Let It Go from Frozen 1 to us in return. She's four. So cute! Was good to talk to them. We had a family meeting after dinner (roast chicken that Jayden made!). Caitie complained that Jayden had 'stolen' her chore of cooking dinner, leaving her with less desirable chores. Steve drew up a rotating roster so that everyone takes a turn at cooking dinner, doing dishes, doing laundry, etc. We'll see how that goes. I put in place a 'quiet time after 10:30pm' rule, as the kids can be quite noisy at night when they don't have to be up early the next day. Otherwise, everything seems to be going well so far. |
| 451 cases in New Zealand. Apparently Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, has the virus. My nephew's part-time job at the golf course is going to pay out the wages subsidy for him. He's pretty happy to be paid for lazing his days away! I set myself up a 'lockdown playlist' on Spotify that's about 35 hours long so I didn't have to keep listening to the same songs on repeat. I reckon I'll revert to the radio eventually, but I don't want Corona virus news thrown at me all day. Dad went for a walk around the golf course. I made rice risotto for lunch. Steve made date scones. And Jayden made dinner again!  Crazy. What is the world coming to?!We had 'family movie night' tonight. We watched Just Go With It, which is an Adam Sandler movie. Quite funny, but of course quite silly as Adam Sandler movies are. Then Caitie went back upstairs and Steve, Jayden and I watched Happy Gilmour, which is a terrible Adam Sandler movie that Steve loves. |
| Steve had to go out to a client site today, despite the lockdown. The client is an 'essential service' as they provide meal kits (similar to the ones we're receiving at the moment). When he got home, Steve stripped off in the laundry, put his clothes on to wash and immediately had a shower. Probably overkill, but never mind. He said afterwards that the meeting could have been held remotely, but the client was all a fluster and probably just needed the reassurance of someone being there. Jayden was complaining of a sore throat and chest, so before Steve went out, I rang the Covid19 free phone line just to make sure it was okay for Steve to go out. They said they didn't think Jayden had the virus, so all good. He seems fine, but at least we could now say we'd rung and asked. Took me an hour on hold. Ugh. Dad said his KiwiSaver investment had gone up by NZ$3,000, but was overall still down by NZ$16,000 since the start of the virus. Dad went to the park for a walk (which he often does) but the park was closed. Steve got a payment from the government to cover two weeks' wages for himself and his employee. That'll help. Had virtual 'Friday afternoon drinks' with my boss and my work colleagues. Was quite fun actually. The holiday home where my boss is staying looks amazing. Wish we'd had a holiday home in which to spend our lockdown! Be so much nicer to go for a swim at the beach or a walk on the beach than a walk around the suburbs. But oh well. Was a good chat. We talked until from 4:30pm to about 6pm, then we called it a week. Steve had the same kind of virtual Friday afternoon drinks with his mum, his brother and his employee. Jayden made dinner... and it was yummy! I think the last time he cooked was about three years ago, so this is truly momentous! Caitie made chocolate brownies which were quite yum. |
| 283 cases in New Zealand. People flying into Auckland airport aren't being allowed to travel to other cities in NZ without doing a 14-day self-isolation first, which means some of them are being put up in hotels near the airport for 14 days. Prince Charles has tested positive for the virus. Eek! Hope the Queen and Prince Philip don't get it, they're definitely at risk being in their 90s. The reports say that Prince Charles is unlikely to be very ill as he is only showing mild symptoms.Mum and my older sister have put teddies in their windows for children walking past to see. It's a thing, apparently. My younger sister in the UK says the UK is doing rainbows rather than teddies. Just gives children something to look forward to on their walks since they're not allowed to go to playgrounds, etc. My sister in the UK finally managed to buy some more toilet paper. She was down to her last roll, I think, and managed to get a pack of 16, so she's pretty happy about that. It's weird that we've all had discussions about what we'd do if we ran out of toilet paper. Thankfully it hasn't come to that, but I know my American friends are facing that situation. Dad went grocery shopping for himself. Said the store was practically deserted. He said the only thing out of stock was flour. My older sister made fudge and I believe she dropped some off to Dad, but not sure if she stayed for a visit or not. We had family games night tonight. Caitie's choice. First we played Bananagrams, which my neighbours had given me for my birthday. We played a couple of games of that. I won one, think Steve won the other. Then we played Dirty Words, which we've owned for a while. I won one of those too and Jayden won the other. Then we played Relative Insanity, which my in-laws had given me for my birthday. It's similar to Cards Against Humanity. It was hilarious. Seriously, I laughed until I cried. I won both rounds of that, but it was so much fun, we all enjoyed it. We actually all enjoyed all of those games, although I think we'll probably skip Dirty Words next time. Even Jayden was having great fun. Awesome family night. |
| Write about something positive. What is something good that’s happened in your world recently? Share a smile, share a laugh, share a success. ~ "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Prompt: How is your "stay at home weekend" going? Have you written anything you want reviewed? Have you reviewed anything you want to tell us about? ~ "Blogging Circle of Friends "  I sent out 70 merit badges today. Jayden cooked dinner last night... and it was yummy! He offered to cook again tonight. I think the last time he cooked was about three years ago, so this is truly momentous! Steve made date scones today and Caitie made chocolate brownies yesterday. There is definitely an advantage to being stuck at home with people who like to bake. I can see I'm going to put on weight while in self-isolation.  On Thursday night we had our first official 'self-isolation games night' and played Relative Insanity which appears to be a variation on Cards Against Humanity. We laughed so much we cried, literally. It was hysterical, and the whole family had fun, which is awesome. We enjoyed it so much that instead of just having family games nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we've now added family movie night on Saturday night. We're going to start with Just Go With It, an Adam Sandler movie that came up in conversation on Thursday. I'm kinda relieved it's not The Princess Bride, to be honest. I had 'virtual Friday afternoon drinks' with my colleagues on Friday at 4:30pm. It was quite fun. My boss looked super casual in his sweater and baseball cap at his holiday home! And we got to see Si's pet bunny. Was a fun way to socialise while maintaining our social distancing. I haven't written anything yet, but I'm going to backdate a daily miniblog of our self-isolation on my Livejournal, noting key events of each day. This is truly historical, what we're living through right now. Plus, I'm doing HEAPS of reading, so I need to write some book reviews and post them on my blog and in the "Little Mouse Loves to Read" . |
| Prompt: COVID-19. It’s affecting all of us in one way or another. Never in our lifetimes have we seen something of this magnitude and severity. So today, check in - how are you? Where is your head at? What’s worrying you? Let’s gather our community around us and hunker down together. ~ "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" Prompt: What's happening in your area with the corona virus? Are they closing businesses, restaurants, movie theaters? What are you doing personally to protect yourselves? ~ "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" I haven't done an update for ages. Pretty much all March. But things have changed, and it seems important to document them. On Monday, New Zealand was given 48 hours notice of a total nationwide lockdown. No leaving your house unless you are shopping for groceries or require medical assistance, or if you work in an 'essential service' (including medical and grocery). It's pre-emptive so that we avoid the spread of the virus, and they've chosen not to wait as long as other countries have. My boss had spoken to me on Saturday at my birthday party and told me he wanted me to continue working in the office for as long as possible. But on Monday the notice of the lockdown came, and I started working from home yesterday. Steve was out on site yesterday, but he's working from home now too. Schools are closed. They're going to have two weeks' break and then switch to full online learning. I haven't mentioned the whole Corona / Covid 19 drama in my blog to date, so for my own records, I'm going to do a recap. I'll include notes as to how it has affected us and our families. 31 December 2019 People become sick in Wuhan, China. Cause unknown. 8 January 2020 New virus identified. 11 January 2020 First death reported (61 year old man in Wuhan, China). 20 January 2020 Virus starts to spread internationally. I flew home from Australia, no troubles. Had a cough for about a week afterwards but didn't think anything of it. Steve caught my cough and he had it for weeks. He did go to the doctor who said it definitely wasn't Corona, but not sure how he knew that as he didn't test Steve. Mind you, we had none of the other symptoms, purely just a cough. 30 January 2020 A global health emergency is declared. Caitie flies out to Brisbane, no troubles, no suggestion that she shouldn't travel. 4 February 2020 New Zealanders brought home from Wuhan are quarantined in Shakespear Park (near Mum, Dad and my elder sister) for two weeks, just in case. 11 February 2020 The virus is named Covid 19 (short for Coronavirus disease 2019). 14 February 2020 Caitie flies home from Brisbane. No dramas. No requirement to self-quarantine. 17 February 2020 My goddaughter flies over to NZ from Australia. No requirement to self-quarantine. 28 February 2020 First confirmed case in NZ. It was inevitable that it would reach New Zealand considering that we were still allowing people to enter from overseas. So far, no community transmission in NZ, but again, it's inevitable. The UK has a lot of cases, and we're quite concerned for our niece Evie, who has low immunity. Here at home, we're concerned for Steve's mum, as she is also vulnerable, health-wise, and Steve's uncle who has emphysema. Not a lot we can do at this stage except watch and wait. Dad says his KiwiSaver investment has lost NZ$3,000 in 3 days.  2 March 2020 Dad says his KiwiSaver has now lost NZ$5,000. My sister in the UK says her whole family 'have the flu'. She says they have 'red, raw throat, shortness of breath and a dry cough'. "I feel fine apart from feeling like someone is standing on my chest and has a hand round my throat. Nearly lost my voice, but no snot nose or watery eyes or headache or anything else." 4 March 2020 Two confirmed cases in NZ. 87,137 cases globally with 2,977 deaths. 5 March 2020 Three confirmed cases in NZ. Still no community transmission. All are people entering the country who had caught it overseas, or their immediate family who are in self-isolation with them. "Where are we going Piglet?" asked Pooh. "We need to get supplies," said Piglet. "For the Coronavirus" "Ahh," said Pooh, nodding in understanding. "Things like bread, milk, cough mixture, tissues, toilet roll and cat litter even though we don't have a cat?" Piglet did a little laugh, and a sort of leap and bit of a cough. "No," said Piglet. "No, those aren't the sort of supplies we need at all! What we need are family sized bags of Kettle Chips, Doritos, Twiglets, massive Toblerone, jelly babies, Haribo's, Bendicks bitter mints and a freezer full of stewing steak, lean minced beef, chicken and all of the red wine, vodka and gin that we can possibly carry, so that when we get quarantined we won't mind it even slightly. THOSE are supplies." All of a sudden, Pooh thought that the idea of coronavirus didn't seem quite so bad, and actually, getting quarantined with Piglet and their supplies really didn't sound such a terrible thing after all. "Oh Piglet," said Pooh. "I really do think you are a very wise animal." 6 March 2020 Four confirmed cases in NZ. 7 March 2020 Five confirmed cases in NZ. 9 March 2020 No hand sanitiser left in stores, but so far all other products available for purchase, including toilet rolls. Don't understand the panic over toilet rolls, honestly. It's not a gastro bug, it's a respiratory illness.  10 March 2020 The whole of Italy is put into lockdown. First country to do so at that scale, as far as I know. They've had 463 virus-related deaths and more than 9,000 confirmed infections in just over two weeks. 13 March 2020 I contacted our IT guy to ensure everyone in our office was capable of working from home if required. My sister's company (also in Auckland) gave everyone there the option of working from home until further notice. My brother-in-law in the UK is doing two weeks at home, two weeks at work, alternating. 14 March 2020 Six confirmed cases in NZ. Anyone entering NZ from overseas must self-isolate for 14 days. This seems good in theory but we felt it was 'too little' because you were trusting people to do the right thing rather than taking control of the situation. My sister in the UK went grocery shopping and the shelves were bare. No toilet rolls, pasta, rice, baked beans or tomato sauce. Still plenty of stock in NZ although people are starting to panic-buy. 15 March 2020 Eight confirmed cases in NZ. 16 March 2020 My sister thinks her family have the virus. Her father-in-law came back from Thailand and was very sick with a bad cough, etc. When he started getting better, he visited them and now they've all got it. Terrible cough and sore throats, temps, etc. Classic symptoms. I urged her to get tested, but the UK isn't testing anyone who doesn't require hospital treatment. Bloody ludicrous. They're working on some stupid 'herd immunity' theory. So they've probably got it, but can't confirm it. Which also means the UK's stats are worse than useless. The good news is that our niece, who has low immunity, has coped okay. She's not well, but she's surviving and that's the main thing. Hopefully they DO have it, and now they've got immunity from it, and the worst is over for them. They didn't self-isolate during, so if they did have it, they contributed to passing it on to others.  Rumours are going around that ibuprofen exacerbates the virus. Sounds like they're seeing some signs indicating that, but it's too early to be 100% sure. Something to be aware of though. 17 March 2020 12 confirmed cases in NZ. The government announces a NZ$12.1 billion package to help out business and individuals affected by reduced sales, redundancies, etc., as a result of the situation. My sister said she lost another NZ$2,500 on her KiwiSaver investment overnight, for a total recent loss of nearly NZ$10,000. 18 March 2020 20 confirmed cases in NZ. All New Zealanders overseas are asked to come home. We were a bit gobsmacked by that. We don't want them to come back and bring it back with them! 19 March 2020 28 confirmed cases in NZ. All gatherings of more than 100 people banned. NZ borders closed to all non-citizens and non-residents. Finally. We were pleased by that one. No tourists will help restrict the spread, hopefully. Much better than expecting people to self-isolate. Schools in the UK close, so my sister has to start home-schooling her kids. There's a water shortage in the UK (after a pipe burst in London) and a bread shortage in NZ (due to a malfunction at the bread factory). Neither helps in the current situation. One of our staff members who is considered 'vulnerable' chooses to start self-isolating and working from home. 20 March 2020 39 confirmed cases in NZ. All libraries and public pools, etc., are closed. No bread, flour, rice, pasta or tinned tomatoes in the supermarket. First sign of a shortage of any product that I've actually witnessed. I couldn't understand why people were stockpiling bread, which is a perishable product, but apparently people are also running out to buy extra freezers.  Mum tried to do her usual weekly online grocery shop (which she's been doing online every week for months now) and they can't deliver for at least a week. Ugh. The kids got sick of Steve being snappy and asked me to hold an intervention. Steve admitted that the constant negativity of the whole situation had got to him, and that he was going to try and look after his mental health better so that he didn't take it out on the rest of the family. Caitie needs to do the same. She seems extra hormonal lately and stressed about school. I think hers is more school-related than virus-related. 21 March 2020 52 confirmed cases in NZ. Everyone over age 70 and anyone in a vulnerable condition are told to stay home. I had my 40th birthday party. My neighbours (who are 79) and my mum (who is 70) came, but they all agreed it was their last outing before self-isolating. Quite a few people didn't come because of the virus, including my mother-in-law who is considered 'vulnerable'. We decided we'd have another one in summer (a Corona virus survival party?!) with everyone who couldn't make the first one. One of my neighbours gave me a pack of 40 toilet rolls as a 40th birthday present. 22 March 2020 66 confirmed cases in NZ. My sister in the UK went to Tesco's at their opening time and the queue was two miles long, so she left again. She ended up going to Waitrose and while she couldn't get any toilet paper and none of her regular products, she was able to get enough of most stuff to see her through the week. 23 March 2020 102 confirmed cases in NZ. Globally, 335,403 confirmed cases and 14,611 deaths. I popped into the supermarket on Queen St on my way into work this morning and they had everything except flour, so I bought some pasta, rice and tinned tomatoes, just in case. Just one pack of rice, two packs of pasta and four tins of tomatoes... I promise I wasn't hoarding loads of stock! NZ has its first cases of community transmission, and the government issues a 48 hour notice of total, nationwide lockdown. This means that we're not allowed to leave our homes unless we're buying groceries or we work for 'essential services'. My boss kind of froze, and I had to walk him through the steps: - Notify all staff that they're working from home until further notice. - Redirect all phone lines to me. - Redirect all mail and courier deliveries to me. They could have been redirected to my boss, but he's thinking about going to his beach house for the duration, and it's not feasible to have couriers, etc., deliver that far out. - Arrange to have weekly online meetings with all staff to maintain contact and communication. 24 March 2020 155 confirmed or 'probable' cases in NZ. Four are classed as 'community transmission'. UK is now in official lockdown, same as NZ. Seems a bit late to make any real difference now, but I guess better late than never? My sister here in Auckland went shopping at her local supermarket and there was no milk. We sat down with the kids and had a family meeting. Explained that they can't just help themselves to whatever food they want as it's not as simple to do a grocery shop as before. We need to eat the perishable food first, avoid food-waste as much as possible, etc. We also talked about the fact that Steve and I were working from home and Caitie was doing school from home, and how Jayden needed to a) respect that and give us space and quiet to concentrate and b) do his share of housework. To manage our mental health, we've got two family 'game nights' scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we'll take turns at choosing the game. Then a family meeting each Sunday night. That leaves Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for 'me time' or whatever. Because we'll all need a mix of socialisation and alone time to get through this. 25 March 2020 205 cases in NZ. An official nationwide 'state of emergency' is declared, over and above the lockdown, giving police, military and government more leeway to enforce the lockdown. Went shopping this morning for us and our elderly neighbours. No queues, which shocked us. Plenty of stock of everything except flour. Yes, there was even plenty of toilet paper. My sister in the UK had been down to her last roll but managed to get another four today, she said. She also did some shopping for her elderly neighbour.  Two lots of our neighbours (the afore-mentioned elderly ones and the fun ones at the back) have asked us to have 'socially distanced drinks' where we sit in our respective properties and chat from a distance. I'm sure we can have some fun with this to lift everyone's spirits. Dad is still playing tennis. I guess they're standing at least two metres away from each other and it's not exactly a contact sport, but still... While the postal system will be running, the post shop counters are closing for the duration, so I went down and bought enough stamps to send 50 letters. I'm hoping to send one to every member of "The Snail Mail Group" but we'll see how I go. Jayden went down to the local supermarkets to see if he could get a job packing shelves or something. Would be awesome if something good could come out of this! He's been turned away from one place, but two others have said they might have something for him. Fingers crossed. |
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