When I looked back it has been a mammoth long time since my last update, so let me take lock down time out to tell you what’s been happening here in New Zealand. To think that when I wrote my last update we couldn’t even imagine the gravity of what Covid-19 would do to our world and life as we know it.
The power cut we complained about back at the start of March when someone crashed into the local gas station seems to pail into insignificance when that same Gas station is now closed because a staff member could have been exposed to Covid-19.
Shortly after that I made a radical decision to do a lifetime first and change the colour of my hair. That decision was about to become the best one I made in a long time. I decided to transition towards natural long grey hair… but not just any grey… I wanted designer grey! So the hair dresser told me it would take a few visits to get there because it was a massive colour change.
The first step was silver highlights and a toner to take the warmth out of the remaining blonde colour I still had in there, with a bright purple shampoo to take home which was to maintain the toner effect until I next visited.
Had I continued with the blonde, this lock down would be driving me crazy, with the roots regrowth everyone will soon start to complain about now the whole of New Zealand is closed!
I managed to squash in an actual bike ride in (my first in like 2.5 months since this leg nerve issue really kicked off) and a month and a half of massive swim volume before the pools were closed, then everything was closed.
The ride was the annual Surf to City: Mark took me half way to the beach because we were not actually sure if the leg would make it from the house to the beach to the park! I am pleased to say I arrived without any drama! I cycled it, Mark ran it (not from the house, only from the beach!)
Splash Palace 
Surf to City 
Feb Swim medal
Then the panic began! Covid-19 with Jacinda Ardern’s sudden decision to move from alls well to complete lock down. This did throw me completely, although on reflection I think it was the right thing to do, it did not give my autistic brain much chance to get used to what was to become my brand new world.
homemade sanitiser 
empty supermarkets 
ration controls 
extra massage linen / cleaning products
I had less than 24 hours to
- shut down the business completely,
- cancel 50+ client appts
- cancel 50+ invoices
- contact them all to explain why,
- talk to all the rest of the clients to warn them of a new online fitness world that they will soon be part of
- reassure 4 staff who were now all in complete panic
Then there was all the back office sums that went with forced shut down.
Glad we managed to squash this in just in time… our student staff member Kimberley finally became a fully qualified personal trainer. ❤
So lucky I had been cycling online because my transition back to the road was about to be postponed some more. Here is what my Zwift world looks like.
Not intentionally, one of Marks last park runs before they were shut down (across the globe not just in NZ) here is what he looked like…..
On reflection there was not much I would immediately miss due to a forced lock down, apart from proper coffee… so I had to go and get me one last fix!
The last day – business shut down with no real knowledge when we will be allowed back in.
So that’s it folks. We are now in complete lock down. I sincerely hope New Zealand does as it has been told, so we can all get out of here a bit faster. The world without humans is quite a freaky one. When you go anywhere it kinda feels like post Zombie apocalypse!!
I decided to make daily videos and I called them The Sanity Diaries. I started this a few days before the sh*t really hit the fan, so although today is video day 9, it is only day 4 of complete lock down.
You can follow them and watch them all on my business YouTube channel.
Melanie Magowan 