Lockdown - day 4

Hard to believe it's only been 4 days, although technically it's been longer -- I started working from home the day after WOMAD, because I was certain I'd caught something and was going to pass it on to my co-workers.

Hard to believe that was only two weeks ago -- we were there with 17,000 other people, packed in like sardines, when the government announced it was starting to take Covid-19 seriously. There were only 6 confirmed cases at the time, but we knew from other countries that it was going to explode. That Saturday they started restricting international travel, but of course it was already in New Zealand. The day after WOMAD, they banned gatherings of more than 500.

The week before WOMAD the government kept telling us we just needed to wash our hands more. At WOMAD, I lost count of the number of people who left the toilets without washing their hands. They walked right by the sanitation station without a second thought. It was at that point I realised we were all going to die.

So I set up my desk in the garage and told work I'd be working from home for the foreseeable future. A few days later, the company announced everyone should be working from home where possible. The schools were still operating -- the government was still trying to manage a veneer of normalcy, and said they'd only close a school if it had a confirmed case, and then they'd only shut the school for a few days to disinfect it -- but our kids' schools saw the writing on the wall and held a "learning at home" day to see how it work. The "school" part worked fine, but all the kids met up afterwards so the "social distancing" was a complete failure.

Of course we wanted to tell our kids, "Don't go, that's crazy, haven't you been watching the news?" but we also didn't want to be alarmist, so we let them go. Our homestay student's father - the GP from Seattle who was on the frontline dealing with this - gave her strict instructions to stay home and isolate herself. She went and spent the afternoon with her boyfriend. (She forgot to turn off "Find my friends" so her parents could see where she was, so that didn't end well...)

Meanwhile, my wife wasn't feeling well at all. She'd developed terrible body aches about two weeks earlier, and her GP had referred her for a CT scan. They'd scheduled it for 30 March. Some times she was fine, but other times - especially at night - she was in agony. We kept waiting for the hospital to call to cancel the CT scan, but we didn't hear from them. On Friday we thought, fantastic, she's going to get the scan and we can figure out what was wrong and start treatment. Friday afternoon they called to cancel.

(Technically, they didn't cancel it; they referred her to a private radiologist who was taking over all "elective" scans. We have no idea how long it will be before they schedule something.)

Yesterday we did two things: Our synagogue had an online service - my wife and eldest daughter were the chazzans (cantors) and I wrote the drasha (sermon) - and we went to Moore Wilsons. M-W is a Wellington institution, the equivalent of Smart & Final (named after Jim Smart and Hildane Final) in Los Angeles, except much, much nicer. They have a fresh food store and a "warehouse-style" store that caters to restaurants but is open to the public; about twice a year we blow a paycheck on 3kg bags of nuts, dried fruits, dried beans, chocolate, tortillas, etc. This time we were after one thing: Bragg's Nutritional Yeast. There has been in short supply because, apparently, the last batch shipped to New Zealand had incorrect nutritional labelling, and it all had to be sent back. Since my wife had gone vegan this had become her seasoning of choice, and M-W was the only place that had it last time. (They didn't have it this time, but we still spent $200 somehow.)

The real reason I mention it is because since the lockdown started, the government has said you should stay local and only shop for essentials, and driving into town for nutritional yeast did not seem to fit that definition. They had given police power to stop vehicles and issue fines, so I was a bit nervous, but I assured myself it was highly unlikely there'd be any police on the roads. We weren't even out of Karori when I saw a police car behind me. And we were the only car on the road.

Thinking quickly, I realised my company had been designated an "essential business" and although I was not an "essential employee" I figured I could bluff my way through it. To bolster my story, I turned off the route to M-W and headed toward work. The police car continued on his way, oblivious to us. I made a U-turn and went to M-W. Although there was a huge queue for fresh food, the warehouse section was virtually empty, since there were no restaurants to service. We filled our cart and headed home without further incident.

We now have more than enough food to last us the month, except the only thing the kids are eating is cornflakes because they can't be bothered to cook anything. They have more time than ever before and yet won't take two minutes to make a sandwich, or boil some noodles, or eat some fruit. I don't understand this, but I am looking forward to when we run out of cornflakes to see how they handle it. That should be tomorrow...