lockdown

Pre-lockdown memory, juxtaposition, cathedral of St. Stephen

It started shortly after my last post, Not in lockdown . Delta variant attempting to run havoc through the antipodes, detected in Brisbane.

Apart from the initial lockdown last year, Queensland has been largely spared from long lockdowns. Victoria and now New South Wales are shouldering the burden.

What a frustrating working from home week!

Monday
The cloud based telephony software was upgraded. The adjusted functionality resulted in me missing a huge number of calls during my 2.75 hours of loop time.

The GP called us in early for the second Pfizer vaccination. I took an hour off work.

Tuesday
After working for about two hours, flu symptoms started. No more work for me today. By the evening a fever was making me feel decidedly uncomfortable.

Wednesday
Feeling 80% of my usual self, I spent the day catching up on unfinished work until the database went down around 3:30 pm.

Thursday
A reasonably productive day.

Friday
A fault in the Woolloongabba national broadband node resulted in an Internet outage of about one hour before lunch time. This resulted in no phone, email, Teams or database access.

We will find out on Sunday if the lockdown is being extended.

I awoke knowing I had to attend a local pathology lab before working from home. Google maps to confirmed an opening time of 6:30 am.

The hot shower resulted in a centrally heated glow emananating through my body. Do I need a coat? Surely I will be okay in shorts and tee. Unknowing if I needed to be fasting or not, I headed out without a coffee.

The cooling 13oC air enveloped my body on exiting. After a couple of minutes, I had to head back for my face mask.

Upon arriving at the clinic, a man was on his way out, four people were seated, and there were four chairs to spare. I sat nearest the entrance. At this point I was far from awake. Why then had I sat next to a source of blasting music? First thought was, a television, no a radio. For a fraction of a second I considered moving seat. After all it would have gone unnoticed to my peers; absorbed by their phones.

The bespectacled used head stowage and push forward methods to escape the irritation of fogged up lenses. While playing word puzzles, solitaire, and Woodoku, I chose to do the on and off, repeat motion.

I made a mental note of the people in front of me. An unnecessary waste of brain power as we all had handed over referral forms to the mufti clad nurse. She was keeping them and us in strict chronological order.

Between patients, the waiting room was treated to melodious stereo as the nurse sang along.

Eventually, I allowed myself to be pointed into the collection room. Robotically settling into the wide throne like chair with wide arm caps. The identity checking and arm choice over, I ‘scooted’ over to the left. The tourniquet attached, fist clenched, ‘you’ll feel a sharp sting’.

A few minutes passed, gaze averted, lulled by the occasional soft popping and scraping noises of the tubes being swapped over. I was jolted from trying not to think about the ache developing in my arm by the nurse. ‘Oh, are you okay? I drifted off there. A mini meditation’, she said.

Commencing the five minutes walk home, I reflected on the sparse number of cars, the sunshine delivering tepid warmth, and how fortunate we are not being in lockdown.