We are approaching two weeks of complete lock down in New Zealand and it has most certainly been a tough adjustment for many, me included.
I do get the feeling that for people like my husband, who is an employee, it feels a bit more like an involuntary holiday, whereas for business owners like me, it’s rather more stressful. A day by day evolving situation with daily law changes almost. I am religiously listening to the daily 1pm press conferences in a bid to keep up with everything.
The longer this goes on, the trickier it becomes. You start off working through a list of jobs from your to do list at home that you never quite had the time for, but soon those jobs will run out, what then?
The media is telling us that by and large, the public are compliant with the lock down rules. Strava is telling me a different story, however. I am watching my feed, with posts stating that they abided by the social distancing and lock down laws…. on their 60+km bike ride. What the actual?! My block is 6km long, that is the only place I have been on my bike, other than the garage /Zwift.
It really angers me because it will be THOSE people who complain the loudest when this lock down is inevitably extended. They will also be the reason for our increased confinement, when that arises. I believe it is a definite, it’s not a case of if it will happen.
cyclign on zwift 
cycling round the block
Rant alert coming..
I have seen neighbours coming from other neighbours houses, (a, I have been locked in for two weeks and I feel ok, so whats the harm?!) I see tons of traffic on the state highway outside the front of our house (which should be silent except for freight). I have had emails lately from my local coffee shop telling me they are now open because they have been deemed an essential service (WTF!?!?!?!) The local trade supplies store is apparently is open to business as normal from Monday (everyone not just essential workers). WHY!!!??? I even read a local hairdresser saying they were able to trade (products only) because they were an essential service too. This, quite frankly, if f***ing outrageous and will only encourage even more tw*ts to go driving around like all is perfectly normal. No one – NO ONE except essential workers should be outside.
All this crazy sh*t will only mean that small business owners like me are locked down / forced to be closed for longer. This will put more and more jobs at risk as pressures rise on mounting and unavoidable business outgoings. This could mean we will have no choice but to make staff redundant if this thing stretches on much longer. Oh but of course, it will then be OUR fault, not theirs, because we should have tried harder.
And in other news…
Anyway, moving on to other things. You get my feelings on the matter. So, here in our little bubble we have literally stayed at home. Yep.
I have been cycling frantically on zwift and recorded amazing stats for March.
The last time I had stats anywhere near this was November last year, the month before the Oxman, round about when it all came unravelled for me and this stoopid foot.
In November I recorded 25 hours of exercise, covering 425km. So I am not yet up to the same speed I had, despite November also including swimming (which I obviously cannot do right now) but then my nerve damage thing has accelerated and has actually become much worse since then. This has severely affected not only my basic ability to ride a bike, but it has also severely affected my muscle power in the affected leg, meaning the not quite up to speed TKR leg suddenly became my ‘good leg’. So I am actually quite happy with these stats.
I am continuing to do some of the work that I am able to do and have altered the layout of the house to create a work space. This has also helped immensely, because I can still ‘go to work’ even though it is only to the other end of the house! It also means I still have some sense of what day of the week it is, which helps when trying to retain as much normality as possible.
Meanwhile Mark has been outside in the garden for the past 10 days and it is starting to look amazing again! Kinda thankful that the weather has been good this week, which is a blessing considering this weekend marks the clock change for winter here in New Zealand.
For the sake of the New Zealand economy, all the other jobs that also might potentially be at risk, and for our sanity of nothing else, I sincerely hope this lock down does not stretch on for too many extra weeks.
Meanwhile, Jacinda, the mother of our nation right now, is doing a grand job indeed.
