Level One

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We are on an everyday basis, in principle, back to where we were before Covid, though the reality of level 1 is a little different. We are asked to continue with our contact diaries of where we have been and who we have met, which is fair enough. The borders are still “closed”, with an obligatory 14 day quarantine for everyone entering the country (unless they are involved in the new Avatar film it would seem!). The interesting thing is that things often still feel quiet, though the traffic is quite busy at times. Some businesses in the CBD are reporting that they were busier under level 2 than they are now under level 1, but we are only on the first week of level 1. What is becoming apparent is that quite a few people are continuing to work from home for part or as much of the time as possible. With the schools now open may be people are appreciating the greater flexibility of working hours. We shall see how this pans out in the long term. Shopping (at the supermarket) is now back to normal, though they have left the perspex screens up at the checkout to give the staff some protection, and these were also still in place at the petrol station. The only downside with supermarket shopping now is that I miss the member of staff who used to point us to the next free checkout - I’m back to guessing myself!


Sean came over this week and collected Claire’s cabin bed - we are very pleased that it has gone to a good home after many years of excellent service. We have setup the divan bed that Jancis gave us and moved the other library table from the garage into Claire’s bedroom so that Nicky can have her own sewing space, and doesn’t have to juggle with chips and gravy on the dinning room table. 


Nicky has had her dental work finished with a lovely shinny crown. She had ordered Veep (a comedy about a female Vice President of the US) on DVD from the library, seasons 2 and 3 arriving awhile ago, and season 1 finally arriving this week. We sat down on Friday evening to enjoy some binge watching, only to be utterly disappointed with the first episode. They all went back to the library on Saturday.


I have done a bit more work this week, but it’s still very light. I had a good Deep & Meaningful meetup on Thursday, and a long chat with Jancis on Tuesday to help her with some computer issues.


Doing laundry has meant negotiating with the weather this week, and we have played lots of mah jongg and Rummy-O. Yesterday saw us embarking on another jigsaw, which was finished this morning during breakfast. Nicky had a much more usual church service (singing, collection and no distancing!) this morning, followed by a celebratory sharing of food. Stella and Ros came over early afternoon to watch Emma on DVD, and then Steve joined them for Scrabble. I have been scanning our wedding photos.


No new photos this week, so here is one from the archive of Long Beach, up on the North Shore of Auckland:



Take care, Rick

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