Everyone is Isolated Together
31 May 2020
It has been an interesting few months with everyone’s lives being upended by the coronavirus pandemic. As I look at online media it is clear that we have been among the most lucky. Some of our preparations were unnecessary: non-perishable food hasn’t been necessary so far. Some things we misjudged: if we had organised home weight-training equipment ahead of time that would have been nice. Generally we have been fine.
At work the elective surgery blitz never really got going before activity was curtailed to preserve protective equipment. We did protective equipment training and rearranged almost all the workforce rostering to provide for separation of teams and the anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases. At the same time my private work was substantially curtailed. Mercifully there has been no significant caseload of COVID-19 at St Vincent's and we are now starting to work on restoring normal activity. Jay’s work had already made the decision to have everyone work from home from the second week of March and that will probably continue for months more.
Derek stayed with us for a month as it became clearer that there was no prospect of leisure travel within Australia. By early April it looked as though things were stabilising in California and it was likely to become difficult or impossible to travel at all, so he made the decision to repatriate. We saw him off at a very empty airport with an adequate supply of hand-sanitiser and surface wipes for the journey.
Almost all public activities and gathering places closed from March 21. This left us with a lot of time in the house and no gym to go to. Weights and other gym equipment became almost unobtainable immediately. We were lucky to be able to borrow some from a friend of a friend whose rehabilitation gym was closed. Over the ensuing weeks we have bought some more plates and an adjustable bench. A squat rack should be ready for us in a few days.
For other exercise and to get out of the house, Jay bought a bike just before the shut-down. The timing was fortunate as we heard that they have also become difficult to obtain. For passing the time indoors, he ordered an Oculus Quest and I bought a sewing machine. The Oculus took so long to get fully working due to fussy USB-C connection so in the mean time he put together a tiny model of the Hubble telescope which had been waiting for a long time.
In the evenings we started sometimes taking a walk at the time we would normally have gone to the gym. Over the last two months we exhausted most of the options for walking nearby and so have started driving a few kilometres before starting the walk. This has taken us as far as Kew and Docklands and provided opportunities to try the night shot feature of the iPhone 11.
As the restrictions eased a little we were able to drive to the family house at Sorrento and also have a visitor there, so we had a pleasant weekend with Tats coming for the day. We were lucky to get an overseas holiday in right before the virus really hit and now that all travel is severely curtailed, driving to the beach for a couple of days seems like a good getaway.
My 50th birthday coincided with the (first and hopefully only) peak of COVID-19 cases in Australia. Jay had planned a lovely surprise trip to NSW for that weekend and I had planned a group go karting event a week later. Obviously none of this could take place. Instead we had a take-away meal from a favourite local restaurant and a cake from The French Lettuce. I hope to be able to celebrate again retrospectively later in the year.
We had been planning to repair the surface render on the outside of the house for some time. The contractors who had quoted on the job were available in April so we spent a few weeks with a three storey scaffold assembled in the light well while they did their work. It went smoothly except for some delay with wet weather. Shortly after the scaffold was removed, the air conditioner in the study broke down and had to be replaced. The timing was unfortunate and I did not have the heart to tell the air conditioning guys that the scaffold which would have provided easy access had just been removed.
It seems amazing that the year is close to half over and it feels like we have spent most of it at home. I hope that things will open up over the next few months without a surge in COVID-19 and that eventually we will be able to start planning travel again and organise a replacement birthday party.
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At work the elective surgery blitz never really got going before activity was curtailed to preserve protective equipment. We did protective equipment training and rearranged almost all the workforce rostering to provide for separation of teams and the anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases. At the same time my private work was substantially curtailed. Mercifully there has been no significant caseload of COVID-19 at St Vincent's and we are now starting to work on restoring normal activity. Jay’s work had already made the decision to have everyone work from home from the second week of March and that will probably continue for months more.
Derek stayed with us for a month as it became clearer that there was no prospect of leisure travel within Australia. By early April it looked as though things were stabilising in California and it was likely to become difficult or impossible to travel at all, so he made the decision to repatriate. We saw him off at a very empty airport with an adequate supply of hand-sanitiser and surface wipes for the journey.
Almost all public activities and gathering places closed from March 21. This left us with a lot of time in the house and no gym to go to. Weights and other gym equipment became almost unobtainable immediately. We were lucky to be able to borrow some from a friend of a friend whose rehabilitation gym was closed. Over the ensuing weeks we have bought some more plates and an adjustable bench. A squat rack should be ready for us in a few days.
For other exercise and to get out of the house, Jay bought a bike just before the shut-down. The timing was fortunate as we heard that they have also become difficult to obtain. For passing the time indoors, he ordered an Oculus Quest and I bought a sewing machine. The Oculus took so long to get fully working due to fussy USB-C connection so in the mean time he put together a tiny model of the Hubble telescope which had been waiting for a long time.
In the evenings we started sometimes taking a walk at the time we would normally have gone to the gym. Over the last two months we exhausted most of the options for walking nearby and so have started driving a few kilometres before starting the walk. This has taken us as far as Kew and Docklands and provided opportunities to try the night shot feature of the iPhone 11.
As the restrictions eased a little we were able to drive to the family house at Sorrento and also have a visitor there, so we had a pleasant weekend with Tats coming for the day. We were lucky to get an overseas holiday in right before the virus really hit and now that all travel is severely curtailed, driving to the beach for a couple of days seems like a good getaway.
My 50th birthday coincided with the (first and hopefully only) peak of COVID-19 cases in Australia. Jay had planned a lovely surprise trip to NSW for that weekend and I had planned a group go karting event a week later. Obviously none of this could take place. Instead we had a take-away meal from a favourite local restaurant and a cake from The French Lettuce. I hope to be able to celebrate again retrospectively later in the year.
We had been planning to repair the surface render on the outside of the house for some time. The contractors who had quoted on the job were available in April so we spent a few weeks with a three storey scaffold assembled in the light well while they did their work. It went smoothly except for some delay with wet weather. Shortly after the scaffold was removed, the air conditioner in the study broke down and had to be replaced. The timing was unfortunate and I did not have the heart to tell the air conditioning guys that the scaffold which would have provided easy access had just been removed.
It seems amazing that the year is close to half over and it feels like we have spent most of it at home. I hope that things will open up over the next few months without a surge in COVID-19 and that eventually we will be able to start planning travel again and organise a replacement birthday party.
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