CV19: Hunkering down, April 2020

So here we are in self-isolation. In my house is my husband, working from home; my 20yo son, still delivering pizza for income; myself, researching and writing; and our cat, Andy, keeping us sane. My daughter studies in Canberra. We were meant to see her at Easter but that obviously had to be cancelled. She recently sent us some gin and sanitiser from Hartshorn Distillery. Much appreciated!

I’m an introvert, homebody, bookworm, nerd… Whichever label you use, staying home is my comfort zone. Despite that, I miss catching up with friends, and have discovered how much meeting a friend at university for coffee, lunch or bubbles at the end of day, helped my motivation and focus for my research. Every now and then I think that I should meet up with someone, forgetting momentarily that I can’t and I’m sorely disappointed. I also like to host the occasional party. We were supposed to be hosting my mother-in-law’s birthday earlier this month. Today I was thinking we should have our neighbours over again since the young family next door is moving away soon.

I’m still in contact with my friends, and have sent care packages to some. A friend who is a nurse, who only recently moved from ICU to maternity after studying to be a midwife and is now geared up to move back. She loves Darrell Lea Bullets, so I sent her some from the Junee Liquorice Factory, a place we often visit when I stay with my parents. In a way, my gift represents the appreciation I have for all nurses at the moment.

I sent another friend a jigsaw when she lamented on Twitter she didn’t have any. For Christmas I received a very difficult cat jigsaw puzzle from Plain and Simple. When I looked up the website I saw they had a dachshund version and thought about buying it for this friend back then, but didn’t. She said she cried when she received it. I cried as I told her this gift represented my gratitude to all my fellow teachers who encouraged me to be innovative and creative in my teaching career.

I regularly buy from Harris Farm for the bulk of our groceries but at one stage orders had to be made 9 days in advance. When we were caught out by that I ordered a special express box which had enough food for a family of five for four days for $250. We were so impressed by this mystery box we sent one to my in-laws too and they had a lot of fun with it. Harris Farms have now changed their express boxes to a range of four cheaper options and regular order lead time is down to just a couple of days.

I’ve always been a keen online shopper but now my husband is home to witness it! His office faces out to the driveway and every second day I hear, “Were you expecting a delivery?”. Since our isolation commenced, on top of groceries and gifts, I’ve ordered wine, track pants, pyjamas, stationery, sheets, hair products, moisturiser, tea leaves and books. So, you know, the essentials.

I began putting on weight due to stress eating when I was feeling the risk of teaching during this COVID-19 time. I then stopped moving and continued eating. I started putting a bit of effort towards exercise by walking with a friend or with my husband. The last time I met with my friend for a walk was the day after Scott Morrison declared that no more than two people could meet together. We were at the local park walking laps of the oval when we ran into a mutual friend and her family. Four of us talked together for a while. Even though we kept our distance from each other I felt uncomfortable.

A few days later my husband and I walked for take-away coffee. We live in a popular area for walkers but it seemed there were more around than usual or I was just more sensitive to them. It’s now been more than two weeks since I’ve left the house.

Instead, I have recommenced the 28 By Sam Wood program and have settled into a nice rhythm of exercise each day. I start the day with a cup of tea in bed and scroll through social media, email and news. I then do my 28 minutes with Sam, followed by a Sam Wood breakfast, often a smoothie. I do some domestic work, and put on the slow cooker once or twice each week. I’m trying to save the non-daily cleaning chores to the weekend and work to weekdays to keep some rhythm and regularity, even though the work and domestic lines are actually more blurred in normal home life. It’s partly to keep a similar pace to my husband but his work days online appear to be longer than his regular work life.

Income wise, I’m in the lucky position of being on scholarship for my PhD. However, due to the inability to travel and the university’s ban on face-to-face research, I am unable to progress as planned. I should be working on my literature review and writing up some sections of my thesis but I’m having trouble with focusing on that. Meanwhile, I have my first ever paid position at university, as a research assistant, on a project similar to mine. I have been plugging away at that, but similarly, not performing to the level I expect of myself. There are a number of factors that have contributed to that, but one of them is the distraction of COVID-19. Whenever the team on this project meet on Zoom, the others complain about how their lives are consumed by Zoom with all their university teaching and meetings. Some of my PhD friends also teach at the university and are overwhelmed with how going online has increased their workload.

Most people I know still have their jobs, which shows the privileged company I keep. A friend’s two sons have both lost their jobs and since they were on casual contracts and had been at their workplaces for less than a year, will not be receiving income compensation from the government. Same for another friend’s son-in-law.

I have been working for three different schools for the last three years but in a really spasmodic fashion. I was certain I wouldn’t be included in the allocation of funding from the government. My suspicions were confirmed when I started seeing campaigns on Twitter for some form of compensation for casual teachers. Apparently the ACT government had come up with a deal for their casual teachers which spurred the NSW lot on.

Sometimes I wish we lived in New Zealand but actually quite grateful to be where I am. I worry about USA, Brazil and other countries under extreme right-wing leadership. I find comic relief in Celeste Barber, BradBucks, Sam Neill and Slats on Instagram. So all up, I’m OK.

Next post will be about cruise ships.