Day one of my Quarantine here in New Zealand.
That one sentence is all I had written and left it to lie for the first eight days of my Quarantine. Leading up to arriving in New Zealand, I had assumes it would be an abundance of time to work and tick off all of the little things that tend to get swept under the rug in the day to day.
Unknown to little naive Jenn, this is not what it was going to be..
Day one –
Flight to Auckland, just as they announce lockdown of the Northern beaches, I tell you the nervous wreck I was ! would they let me on the plane? How was I going to cope in Quarantine? The work that was looming over my entire team and myself, how could I go away at such a time? And of course, back to if I could not get on the plane, would I get to see my grandad again?
A little context, My Grandad is quite ill, and we only have a few precious moments left to share with him, so thanks to some lovely and unsuspecting people in my life, they have helped me get back home to share a moment or two with my Oupa. For this, I am eternally grateful, especially in the current COVID climate. Many people don’t get the opportunity to see their families, so for this, I know I am fortunate and therefore appreciative.
Day Two –
Nothing to report; a lot of napping took place, and I rationalize that I needed to catch up even though it explicitly tells us in the wellness handbook (provided in Quarantine) that we should avoid naps. Yeah, right, I had been working like a mad man, and I would be damned if this body wasn’t going to catch up on some much-needed Z’s. How rebellious of me!
However, I did not stay inside all day; I did manage to get out in one of the allocated ‘outside time’ slots; we get two of these a day, (Awesome I know!).
This is how it went down…
A car park (Cue dramatic music)
Witches hats (Traffic cones)
Tape
Now imagine the cones placed around the car park to create a circular track; welcome to the walking circle of sanity. Where big life decisions are contemplated, and the newly developed skills of walking fast with limited breathing. The mask, the all-saving mask of protectiveness, helps spread symptoms, complicate communication, and limit adequate oxygen intake while breaking a sweat.
Day Three –
The day of struggle. In health check, the nurses mentioned that the trend is day four or day nine that people tend to struggle; well, my mind decided that today was the day for struggle.
Not only did I get my brain and swabbed, but it also felt like they managed to swab the back of an eyeball, or so it felt, but back to day three of woe.
When you have a relatively busy life stressing about work or trying to shred the extra jiggles, there is not much time left to process the severe matters in life—no time for critical self-reflection. A defense I tend to put up when something is about to unsettle my little universe. How can I be there for the family when I live an ocean away?
Did I contemplate moving back? of course I did, and at times do. Day three came with the questions such as, why am I doing what I do? What have I achieved in this past year? Why am I approaching 30 and not feel like I earned (let alone achieved) my most valued goals?
A day of feeling lost and utterly low, a day of questions I do not have answers to, or instead answers I don’t like.
Day three was a tale of woe and self-pity, but come on, let’s get today Four!
Day four,
The day My aunty brings my grandparents for a visit, and of course, I waved like the lunatic that I am, but they had no idea who I was until I removed my mask! the great unveiling! ha-HA! A day to treasure, having my 30-minute visit, followed by curling up in a ball to have another self-pity session.
Day Five-
The cousins make an appearance for the 30-minute visit, being told I resembled an exhibition at the zoo. The zombie apocalypse was also discussed, and if there were any roaming around the complex.
Sorry to inform you, but there are no zombies around.
Day Five was also the day I woke my mother up extra early, and all she said was, “Karma, you wait, you, evil child, payback will come,” and of course, I just laughed as usual.
Little did Jenn know (again) I had been asleep for maybe 2 hours before there is a knock at my door (1.11am). At first, I think, ‘Oh shit, we are evacuating,’ but no, just a random headcount from the army guys. Couple this day with some inventive ways to heat pastries and you have a fab Christmas Day 😉 (no microwave and the pastries were cold sooooo time to whip out the hair dryer and warm those bad boys up)
Day Six-
Dad visits me. 🙂 This was followed by buying a beer and sending him a picture in ‘cheers’.
I must now confess that I think I have missed a day somewhere because I am about to write Day 7, and I am pretty sure thats the day Dad visited me.
Anyway, I am on day 8, and it’s struggle street for the second time.
I keep focusing on the positives, get out for my daily walk in my circle of sanity, and just keep ongoing.
Safe to say, I will stay on the straight and narrow in life because prison life is no place for Jenn. I enjoy being alone most of the time, but I miss the outdoors, the ocean, sand, grass; oooooh, bring the natural outdoors back into my life!
For now, I am out; enjoy the photos and leave a comment if you will 🙂
Always Wandering 