ISOLATION: DAY TWO

Breakfast was five minutes late this morning! I was pacing by the door, stopping only to peep through my little security porthole, to see if it had arrived. They don't knock on the door for breakfast delivery in case they wake us! Does this mean I am becoming institutionalised already? I can't deny that I start to look forward to the next meal about an hour before it arrives. The food (so far) has been excellent. For breakfast this morning I received:

  • Four Weetbix (Gluten free) and milk
  • A yoghurt
  • A banana
  • Two pieces of toast with jam and olive spread
  • A spirulina fruit smoothie
All this to a guy who doesn't normally eat breakfast! I polished off the lot! (But I did struggle with the fourth Weetbix!) Coffee, of course, was a major concern for me, so I arrived with two bags of ground coffee and my portable 'aeropress' espresso machine. A little experimentation and I have produced an excellent brew with only about 100 grms of used coffee grounds spilled onto the floor. Alcohol may be in short supply, and as a predominantly social drinker, I can handle that just fine. But two weeks locked up without a decent coffee to kick off my day was something I could not contemplate! 

The menu for the entire stay has been provided; no sausages, no cheese, no bacon and eggs. I'll do my best to survive! To be fair it looks like a very interesting menu, catering for a wide range of palates, even gluten free ones. I can also purchase up to a bottle of wine per day but I have decided to save that for a weekend treat. Some well-meaning person has presumably calculated that one bottle of wine a day is a healthy volume to consume, without running the risk of parties breaking out. I don't yet know if I have to hand an empty bottle back to get the next full one but I am sure I could find sufficient storage vessels to have a full 3 bottle party at the weekend should the need arise?šŸ·

I spent the day working diligently away on a few different projects but also allowed myself the luxury of several reading breaks. I have just finished "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell. Perhaps in retrospect this was not the best reading material for me at this time, involving at it does emotional themes and much angsty separation between wife and husband. But it is very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The real excitement of the day was the wait for my first test result so that I could get my exercise bike delivered. This was finally reported at 4 pm and was, as expected, negative. I eagerly phoned my new friends at 'wellbeing' but it was too late to deliver it today. Having tested negative, I now get to wear a lovely blue wrist band. I have checked it carefully and I don't think it contains an electronic sensor. The major news story of the day was that three people escaped from an Auckland quarantine for a few hours; I guess they just hadn't stocked up with good quality coffee? After that debacle, the electronic wristbands (or even manacles?) may not be far away?

At 7pm 'blue band group' were allowed downstairs for 30 minutes exercise. This was the first time I had been outside the room since Monday afternoon. There is an area of the hotel car park fenced off for this and, wearing our matching blue bands and masks and observing strict social distancing, we trudged gamely around, wondering where the security cameras were. The smokers have a special little area at one end. Conversation is not aided by a mask and was further confounded when I realised that everyone else was speaking Italian, possibly with a little French here and there. After a few muffled "Ciao's" I gave up! I think they have just arrived from the Antarctic base (Christchurch airport is a major transport centre for Antarctica.) Of course they may be here to milk cows or pick fruit, even drive HGV trucks, as the NZ economy is very dependent on imported sills: it's why they let me in many years ago. Radical idea that, isn't it? Importing labour from overseas to fill in the skill gaps in your economy!  


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